I have made a decision. From now on, I will stop calling John McCain "Senator." He is now "Lord McCain," ruler above the people. McCain (R-AZ), heir apparent to the Republican Party, has just made it very clear that if...

From now on, I will stop calling John McCain "Senator." He is now "Lord McCain," ruler above the people.

McCain (R-AZ), heir apparent to the Republican Party, has just made it very clear that if American voters do not agree with his decision to escalate the war in Iraq--then he will insult us, call us names, and elevate himself above us.

Rather than listening to the American people--the majority of whom want U.S. troops redeployed out of Iraq as soon as possible--the latest framing tactic from McCain was apparent in his recent press conference in Baghdad:

The American people are confused, they're frustrated, they're disappointed by the Iraq war, but they also want us to succeed if there's any way to do that.

Translation: The American public says one thing. John McCain says the opposite. Ergo, the American public must be "confused:

Americans are confused = John McCain ignores will of people

My questions to John McCain is very simple:

- By what evidence do you claim that the American people are confused?
- At what point did you become convinced that your view matters more than the views of those very people who elected you to office for the purpose of carrying out their will?
- By what right do you decide that the only opinion that matters in America is yours?

Americans are confused? No way. If anyone is confused it is John McCain--confused about the meaning of a representative democracy.

Last month the American people spoke clearly and without hesitation in the 2006 midterm elections--saying in no uncertain terms that they wanted the American occupation of Iraq to end and U.S. troops to return home. And in America, our elected representatives are charged not with the task of ruling over the voters, but with the responsibility of acting on behalf of the voters.

In McCain's dark vision, however, American is not a representative Democracy but an elected autocracy. For McCain, being elected by the people signaled to him that he had been chosen to rule, not to govern. And rulers do not respond to the will of the people, they rule and rule until their will displaces entirely the will of the people.

In a democracy, government action is an expression of the will of the people.

In an autocracy, government action is an extension of the will of the ruler.

George W. Bush is clearly an autocrat--seeing his will and his will alone as the only aspect of American life that U.S. government policy must express. And now, John McCain is revealing that he, too, shares the exact same autocratic vision.

Will of the people be damned. The more they disagree, the less he listens. In John McCain's world, it is the responsibility of every citizen to understand the will of the ruler, and adjust their lives accordingly.

If the people say that they want U.S. troops to redeploy from Iraq, but John McCain says that we should send more troops to Iraq--then the people must adjust to McCain's command.

The way of the ruler, the autocrat, the authoritarian.

Authoritarians do not govern. They impose their will. They silence dissent. They send the people to their deaths.

From now on, I will stop calling McCain "Senator."

From now on I will call him--and anyone else who claims to be above the people--"Lord."

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Frameshop: "Lord" McCain

I have made a decision.

From now on, I will stop calling John McCain "Senator." He is now "Lord McCain," ruler above the people.

McCain (R-AZ), heir apparent to the Republican Party, has just made it very clear that if American voters do not agree with his decision to escalate the war in Iraq--then he will insult us, call us names, and elevate himself above us.

Rather than listening to the American people--the majority of whom want U.S. troops redeployed out of Iraq as soon as possible--the latest framing tactic from McCain was apparent in his recent press conference in Baghdad:

The American people are confused, they're frustrated, they're disappointed by the Iraq war, but they also want us to succeed if there's any way to do that.

Translation: The American public says one thing. John McCain says the opposite. Ergo, the American public must be "confused:

Americans are confused = John McCain ignores will of people

My questions to John McCain is very simple:

- By what evidence do you claim that the American people are confused?
- At what point did you become convinced that your view matters more than the views of those very people who elected you to office for the purpose of carrying out their will?
- By what right do you decide that the only opinion that matters in America is yours?

Americans are confused? No way. If anyone is confused it is John McCain--confused about the meaning of a representative democracy.